


Start Something Contagious

by Rileykins



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Gen, Irondad, Peter also has to stop being a goddamn insomniac or so help him, Peter has a song stuck in his head and Tony's tired of listening to it too, inspired by a tumblr post
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-16 20:36:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16502267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rileykins/pseuds/Rileykins
Summary: Peter Parker is an insomniac. Good thing he's got his suit to keep him company.Too bad Tony Stark's got a tracker in it, that alerts him whenever the kid leaves his apartment.Tonight is not the night to go trapezing around the city, but that doesn't seem to stop Peter. It never does.





	Start Something Contagious

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AngelsAvengeMe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelsAvengeMe/gifts).



> Dedicated to my Marvel-trash twin, Lars. I love you! I love this story! I hope I did you proud :)

He had a song stuck in his head.

 

Not that that was unusual, because he always had some song stuck in his head. Who didn’t?

 

Peter Parker sighed, perched on the edge of a building as he stared the city down. It had been a pretty quiet night, like the city was holding its breath. Definitely the calm before the storm. He nervously shifted his weight, the old edge of the building crumbling briefly under his foot. “Man, someone’s gotta fix that,” He murmured, before he stepped down and shot a length of web to snap onto the solid lightning rod on the adjacent building.

 

He leapt, his body weight making him fly.

 

When he landed on the next building, he moved to a darkened corner (heh, darkened corner in the middle of the night, *on a rooftop*) and removed his mask, blinking the change out of his eyes. Brown hair was swept back with the cool night breeze and for just a minute Peter breathed. He inhaled the dirty air, the faint stench of the rising sewer vapors from below, the gas from the cars that trudged along the road at this dead hour. He leaned back against the brick wall, just taking a second to be himself. It wasn’t like he could really be anyone else. *He* was Spiderman; Spiderman was a part of him, just like Iron Man *is* Tony Stark.

 

The thought of the older man made Peter flush. Tony had dropped by earlier today to talk to Peter about his “apprenticeship”, winking at May on his way in. 

 

Tony had not come over to talk to Peter about his apprenticeship.

 

Tony had walked into the apartment to tell Peter he had to stop looking for trouble. It was the same conversation they had had two weeks ago. Then again a week ago when Peter may or may not have gotten into trouble for pushing a student away from another student… and he may have pushed a little too hard and sent the kid sprawling into the lockers behind him, earning him a 48 hour suspension.

 

Tony _and_  May weren’t happy with his actions.

 

‘But I _have_  to look out for my people out there!’ Peter had almost whined, nearly sulking on his bed. Tony stood in front of the closed door, sunglasses hiding his eyes. ‘No one else will!’

 

‘The police force are out there everyday and every night. You don’t need to rush headfirst into trouble whenever you feel like it, kiddo.’ Tony had replied with a cool tone, the same half bored tone he had used in the limo that one day. Peter hadn’t flinched at his words that time. He mumbled something about being tired, and he’d make sure to catch up with his homework the next day, before he climbed into bed and pointedly ignored Tony until the man left.

 

He didn’t even wait until Tony’s car had pulled off the curb before he was out the window in his suit.

 

He pulled his phone out and checked his messages, taping further to open the Instagram app and scroll through some of the best curated meme accounts he had started following over a year ago. He grinned to himself, chuckling at some of the more unique ones that popped up. Of course, scattered throughout the app were some of the more personalized posts. The ones Ned made, the ones he received from following the official Tony Stark account. His grin faded slightly. For a minute he wondered what Tony was doing right now anyways.

 

Checking the clock on his phone, his eyes widened slightly. Sleeping, probably. Like anyone else in their right mind would be doing at nearly 4:14am.

 

Unfortunately, he was wrong.

 

Nursing a cup of coffee as he hovered a building or three away from Peter, Tony Stark listened to the kid talk, laugh and hum the same part of a song to himself for a better part of five hours. He had been pinged the second Peter had given May the slip out of his bedroom window, and after letting Happy know he had to go back to talk to May about something and to get on back to Pepper and the others, he got out of the car and called the suit to him. Tony allowed Peter a thirty second head start before he followed the kid across uptown, where he was then subjected to whatever it was Peter did on his nights out.

 

Tony watched carefully, letting Friday know that he would probably need more coffee before the morning was over and to let Pepper know where he was. Pepper would wake up in a few hours anyways, and while he knew she was used to waking up alone (Tony felt his heart drop at that thought. No one should be used to waking up alone when they were in a committed relationship) he had made the effort to be there, present, in the mornings for her.

 

Peter was doing a damn good job at making Tony late for breakfast in bed most mornings.

 

‘How did the kid function on such low sleep?’ Wondered the other, more extreme insomniac.

 

Peter’s humming snapped him out of the slight daze he had been in. Sipping the coffee before chucking the empty cup onto the ground below him, Tony flew a little closer, preparing his suit to take off after the kid should he get flighty again.

 

Tony had listened to Peter hum that tune over the course of the last few hours, and it was finally (finally) beginning to get onto his nerves. He asked Friday to look for the song lyrics following the tune, and began to fly over to where Peter was holed up. He would take the kid home kicking and screaming if he absolutely had to- May had to find out about his extra curricular activities sooner or later anyways, right? Setting his jaw, Tony set off, at a slow enough pace that he wouldn’t scare Peter too badly when he caught up with him.

 

Peter had started bundling back up again, pulling his mask on after securing his phone into the handy pocket Tony had stupidly installed into the suit. Instagram was only entertaining enough when the majority of the accounts he followed were actually awake. He glanced at the clock once more before pushing his phone down into the pocket: 4:27am. Crap.

 

He was beginning to feel a little tired, but there was about an hour of swinging from building to building left before he would be home and in bed. Then, an hour and a half before May would knock on his door to tell him to get up and get ready for school. The thought made Peter sigh. This was the routine he had figured worked best for him. Even when it didn’t produce the results he wanted. Not that he wanted to chase down potential criminals this early. Did criminals follow a schedule anyways? Was there a best time to “commit a crime”? Would that ever be at 4 in the morning?

 

Who knew? Not Peter, obviously.

 

Humming, he was leaping across the building when the tune finally matched up with the song.

 

“I knew it!” He chastised himself, flicking another strand of web to attach onto the side of another building. Landing with minimal stumble beside a business building’s window, Peter hummed the song, the words slowly coming out.

 

“Makin’ my way downtown, walking fast-” He paused, and laughed to himself. Of course, he’d have that song stuck in his head. Ned had been humming it all day! He relaxed, humming as he tried to place the rest of the song. Repeating the first line a few times to get his memory jogging, Peter hadn’t noticed that he had attracted the company of someone he wasn’t expecting to see for at least a few more weeks.

 

“Peter Benjamin Parker,” Tony suddenly appeared to his left, startling him.

 

“Uh, w-walking faster!” Peter said, and shot another web to another building just within his reach. He swung away from Tony, who simply sighed and resigned to follow, occasionally reminding the kid that he had *rockets* in his feet and hands, that if he really wanted to, he could catch up to him easily.

 

But the game of cat and mouse would be so much sweeter once Tony chased the kid home safely.


End file.
